Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Metaplatforms, attends a dinner with tech leaders at the State Dining Room of the White House on Thursday, September 4, 2025 in Washington, DC, USA. US President Donald Trump said he would impose tariffs on semiconductor imports “soon” but also on spare parts from companies such as Apple, which have pledged to increase investment in the United States. Photographer: Will Oliver/EPA/Bloomberg via Getty Images
Will Oliver | Bloomberg | Getty Images
meta The company expects 10% of its total revenue in 2024, or about $16 billion, to come from online advertising for fraudulent and prohibited products, Reuters reported Thursday.
These types of ads included promoting “fraudulent e-commerce and investment schemes, illegal online casinos, and the sale of prohibited medical products,” according to a Reuters report based on internal documents. The documents showed the company’s efforts to measure the prevalence of fraudulent advertising on apps such as Facebook and Instagram.
Meta’s total sales in 2024 were more than $164.5 billion. Last week, the company announced third-quarter revenue of $51.24 billion, up 26% from a year earlier, and said it had raised its annual total spending floor by $2 billion as part of a major investment in artificial intelligence.
The Reuters report cited a December 2024 document showing that Meta generates approximately $7 billion in sales each year through so-called “high-risk” fraudulent advertising, which is clearly deceptive promotion. Reuters reports, citing separate documents, that Meta displays an estimated 15 billion of these high-risk fraudulent ads to its users every day.
While some of the documents indicate that Meta aims to reduce the amount of false advertising on its platform, Reuters reported that other documents also suggest that Meta is concerned that abruptly removing fraudulent promotions could affect its business forecasts.
A Meta spokesperson said the company “aggressively” combats fraud and deceptive advertising on its app. The company’s prediction that 10% of its 2024 ad sales would come from double-tier ads was “more of a rough and overly inclusive estimate than a final number. In fact, subsequent investigation found that many of these ads were not in violation at all,” a spokesperson said in a statement.
“Unfortunately, the leaked documents present a selective view that distorts Meta’s approach to fraud and fraud, focusing on our efforts to assess the scale of the problem rather than the full range of actions we have taken to address it,” the spokesperson said.
Note: Wall Street is backing AI winners, but Meta is not among them this quarter.
